Do you know which way round the distances at Bingham are? I fancy a real blast at the mile, so might just do that if the 3000m races are first up. If the mile is first though, I'll probably do both - injury permitting.

And yep, as per Lit's post, I won't stick my stats up for the time being, particularly as Skinny said he won't be around much for a while. I should be able to assist with getting an image for the spreadsheet up here in due course if it helps though.

Ok - boring musings as promised. When I look back on all my good races I've always presumed that it was the 'magic' of race day that has enabled me to out perform my training - adrenaline, being with other runners. In actual fact they have all had a period of taper of some sort and whilst I am sure they all have an impact it may be that getting the taper right is the key.

This week coach planned me a taper of sorts from Tuesday which (mid training plan) is about all you can afford - unfortunately being stuck at work all Tuesday meant doing a hard session on Wednesday night which was simply too close to Saturday for an optimum race effort.

I'm okay about my time yesterday now - I think it was the first time tohugh I have turned up to race and not got a PB or exceeded my expectations so was a bit of a shock!

Also I am still quite a novice at actual races due to my low number of outings so all part of the learning curve.

I didn't do much of a race report but yesterday I spent most of the last two laps trying to close on the leading woman (who had gone off too fast) so was slowing slightly faster than me. In my head I pretended she was Lit and this helped me get an effort in closing stages through pain - anyway I got on her shoulder with about 250 yards to go but she ran away from me in last 100 yards - so I wasn't happy about Lit beating me either!

Richard I 'm not as senile as I thought - number for Dumfries 10k arrived yesterday - looking at website they don't accept entries on the night.

In Other Slightly More Interesting News

I will be lining up with Mo Farah and Haile Gebrselassie on 15th September - my mate has an entry for Great North Run but can't do it and has let me have it. After a discussion with Coach I'm going to do it as a training run and enjoy atmosphere the first half then build from there. Having run it once before the first half is very claustrophobic anyway so it will be a lot less frustrating just accepting the pace.

Okay - the above shows we've reached our category capacity so before adding extra we would need to lose some other categories. The end of the above message read:-

Slightly improved to show who the Top Trump in each category is at the moment and also added the miles - all the other suggested categories I can't do because don't have sufficient information and haven't stalked Tommy.

I think we can lose the medals cat. No one really cares about that. Intersting to see that you appear to have capitulated wrt height and taken tallest as best.

Have fun with the GNR. I know my dad ran it a few times when he was younger and reckons its a good race. Do you know where you will be starting?

So. Training this weeks has comprised. 4M easy, 4M easy w 5 hill reps, and yesterday 7M w 5x100m strides. All felt good with no sign of the calf problems. However, this morning I could feel a familer ache, so I replaced the planned 10 miles with 4 easy. No pain but I can definitely feel 'something'

I think I'll carry on with just easy running. No strides, nothing and see what develops. Very disappointing.

On reflection, I think the training mileage category doesn't really need to be there as it's the most labour-intensive to update and it's not an area anyone's going to be competing on, since we're just doing whatever training seems sensible. Medals, by contrast, is the most important category.

Lou, sounds like things are improving even if not as quickly as you'd like?

Bob, I am not ashamed of my excellent taste in music. There are all sorts of exciting things on my mp3 player.

Skinny, will you be doing GNR in a banana suit? I was offered a free entry to the Royal Parks half but I said no. Partly because it is the week after the Robin Hood, and partly because it clashes with the much more excitingly-named Goose Fair Gallop.

At some point over next 3 weeks I'll post the full story coz it's worth telling even if it's not worth reading

Bob - well done on parkrun PB - in between the still injured and managed a parkrun I understandably missed the part where your parkrun at tempo pace was actually a PB!

Lou - I can manage the bald head but not the short part - Lit appreciate the change of avatar - helps me imagine what I'm trying to beat in my next race di di deedee diddly deedee diddly nenana na na na na na na!!

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